Black Hills Single Speed Championships RESULTS

BLACK HILLS SINGLE SPEED CHAMPIONSHIPS JULY 3, 2005

Blue skies, no wind and 70 degree temps greeted 36 riders that came out for the Black Hills Single Speed Championships this Sunday. Conditions were ideal as a small amount of rain fell the day before, just enough to keep the dust down on the fun singletrack trails in the rocky/rooty forest near Rockerville, SD. A total of 24 riders showed up on dedicated single speed bikes ( four of those were UNICYCLISTS for Pete's sake!) A dozen geared riders showed up and took the vow to abstain from shifting on the 12 mile loop. Gear selections were generally lower than 2:1 for the climbing that lay ahead.

Right off the gun, a group of 6 male riders, all single speed, jumped to the front after the initial one mile climb and turn into the first singletrack of the challenging route. The field was quickly thinned out as the difficult climbing and tricky trail tested the riders' skills of balance and pedal timing, as well as just plain fitness. This first climb of some 3 miles is followed by a near 2 mile descent on fast, open mature singletrack that allowed 4 riders to get off the front and continue a 4-way battle that continued through the rest of the race with a couple lead changes occurring. In the end, only 10 minutes separated the first 12 places.

In the Women's division six ladies showed up to fight for the Black Hills Single Speed Women's Title. Two of the women got good position going into the singletrack and proceeded to pick off the overly eager men that surged ahead at the mass start. The eventual women's winner and leader throughout the race had her seat rip from its rails half way up the second big climb, resulting in a little more standing than was bargained for! Like a trooper, she picked it up so as to not litter the route.

Lots of prizes from Surly, Salsa, and the fine folks at QBP and Acme Bicycles were given out at the Gaslight over burgers, sodas (beers) and milkshakes. The grand giveaway was a Kona Unit Single Speed bicycle frame donated by Kona to get one more Black Hills Area rider out on a single speed! Thanks guys!

The over all winner in the Men's and Women's category each won a gift certificate for a Tattoo to remember their efforts by! Purple Impala in Hill City will ink them up to be forever known as the 2005 Black Hills Single Speed Champions. Thanks to everyone for coming out to ride!

Is this part of the Black Hill's Mountain Bike association series? I used to do that series back in 94-96 and was disappointed to find recently that a lot of the old races from that time, many of which had been going for 10+ years were not around any more like Old Baldy, Bear Lodge, or Mt. Roosevelt. This sounded like a good time. I believe they had an event in Rockerville the last year I was in that series but that was the only one I missed due to getting married the day before. Hopefully things will keep going out there as there used to be fantastic turnout at all of the BH events as there were all sorts of great courses around the area.

Fantastic!

Great to see that there is still a very active mtb and SS community there in SD. I swung thru once and Tim of Acme sent me out with a shop rat into a driving thunderstorm to ride some blissful/electrifying single track. I knew right then that if I HAD to move back to the midwest I'd shoot for the Rapid City area. Such pretty mountains and forests...

Your whole event sounds like a blast, will it be repeated next year?

bike ON
bob

red-haze
The more I know the more I know I don't know.
Let the bike ride the trail, you ride the bike.
Look where you want to go, not where you don't want to go.

Black Hills ATB Scene....

Burkeman, well the "Series" aspect of things is sorta done, no one has been keeping track of an overall winner. The Dakota Five-0 in Spearfish is the defacto State Championships now. I thought a seperate, and shorter ride for a SS championship was in order, helps draw more folks as 50 miles is a long haul for the casual SS rider. Many of the old courses are still around, but race promoters have changed or moved on, or other courses have popped up that are more accepted. Really though, getting 30 folks for a race is big these days (Dakota 50 gets 100 riders, biggest by far) as ATB racing is in a slump of sorts, plenty of riders, just not the racing scene of the late 80s through the early 90s. No losses, just changes, Alkali, Bearlodge, LaFramboise Island, etc, are still held. More info at www.bhmba.org on those. The BHSS Championships is my shop's own silly little ride/race. It'll go on each year, around the 4th of July from here on out. The Rockerville course of '97 is long gone, forest fires, and trail improvements have changed the riding vibe up there for the better, lots more to choose from and at all abilities, so swing on out for a ride sometime if you can. Make it the Dakota Five-0 and you will not be dissapointed!

Red Haze, yeah, hope Nate treated you right on that ride. Poor kid is spending his summer in Bejing (the one in China) so he is riding a single speed alright, one with rod brakes and solid rubber tires, perhaps a "Flying Pigeon" if he's lucky. ATB ing in general is still rolling right along. USFS threats from a national level to trail closures and forest access and restrictions in general always loom, but there are 1.5 million acres and the ATV/Shooters are wrecking it for themselves, so we are trying to stay above that mess!